Bewdley Parking Concessions
February 20, 2010 1:15 PM
TORIES FIDDLE WHILE BEWDLEY BURNS
The excuses given for the District Council's refusal to help Bewdley's retailers by offering parking concessions during the Severn Trent roadworks are an insult to the intelligence of Bewdley's business community.
Cllr Tracey Onslow argues is that if Bewdley gets special treatment, every where else should. She cites recent works on Gilgal, Market Street, New Road, Green Street, Birmingham Road, The Bullring, The Ringroad and Weavers Wharf as example. Few of these bear any comparison to Bewdley's plight. Is the council's failure to help those that do supposed to make Bewdley's traders feel better?
She goes on to argue that roadworks are not under the District Council's remit and so they couldn't possibly predict the timing or duration of the works or plan for local assistance in the council's budget. This argument is so full of holes it could inspire a statue for the Horsefair. A council that doesn't build contingency into its budget is incompetent.
Yet Bewdley's road works are anything but unquantifiable and the idea that WFDC is divorced from the Severn Trent works is a sham. The works have been planned for two years. The start and end dates of the project were disclosed to Bewdley residents months ago and are on the County Council website.
Bewdley's County Councillor, John Campion is also the leader of WFDC and told to me last year that he was involved in every part of the negotiations with Severn Trent. Bewdley's District Councillor and absentee Town Councillor, Stephen Clee is the County Council's Cabinet member in charge of Corporate Services. Is Cllr Onslow saying that these powerful fellow Tory Councillors haven't liaised between the County and District Councils they rule? Of course they have. The only people they haven't consulted with are the traders themselves.
These days, no authority in its right mind would agree major disruptive works without the contractor conceding substantial penalty clauses for late working. If the schedule overran, a proportion of those penalties could recompense Bewdley businesses that are currently losing around half of their turnover. Even if WFDC has no direct influence on the contractors, at the very least, Campion and Clee should be fighting for a share for their constituents. Merely saying talk to Severn Trent is an abdication of duty.
Cllr Onslow is right that these are difficult times and that the council doesn't have much spare cash but it will have a great deal less if the elected District and County councillors don't step in to prevent more shops closing in Bewdley.
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Neville Farmer
Wyre Forest Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate
Contact Number: 07966 150444
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